why do coaches pick against their opponent

instead of for their own team?

NRG vs LEV, bonkar opts to ban Haven over Pearl because they beat LEV on Pearl prior to london

G2 vs XLG, joshrt picks Ascent over Pearl despite being undefeated on Pearl this split

all of this because the other team is supposedly “weaker” on that map and not necessarily because their team is stronger. how as a coach are you meant to know why the other team isn’t good on a map and be absolutely certain that it means you can beat them on it?

it makes no sense, it’s arrogant to try and pick maps that don’t favor your opponent instead of ones that do favor you

they might think that a specific anti they have is enough to compensate for their flaws on a map

super dated example but optic drx breeze 22

optic breeze wasn’t THAT good but they had a hard anti that drx always end on the site they skye dog

so they picked into drx and won

i do agree with you though, most of the time it isn’t justifiable